SEOUL, July 11: United Nations atomic agency inspectors are likely to return to North Korea on Saturday to monitor the shutdown of its reactor, the agency’s chief has said.

“I think they will travel on the 14th so hopefully they will arrive there on the 14th,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters on Wednesday on his arrival in South Korea for a conference.

After talks with President Roh Moo-Hyun, ElBaradei expressed hope that Pyongyang would scrap its atomic weapons programme and return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which it quit in 2003.

“Now is a very crucial time for the IAEA, Korea and the entire world. North Korea has just returned to a verification process,” he said.

“I wish it would lead to North Korea’s return to the NPT and complete scrapping of its nuclear weapons programme.”

US Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying that Washington was prepared to begin negotiations before the end of the current year on a permanent peace if the North took steps towards complete denuclearisation.

However, he warned that it would not settle for a partial solution that would leave North Korea “with even a small number of nuclear weapons”.

Last week, the North said that to get negotiations moving it was considering closing Yongbyon as soon as the first oil shipment arrived under a deal reached in February. The 6,200-ton consignment was being loaded on Wednesday and was expected to reach the North around Saturday.

“The arrival of the first shipment of heavy oil in the North, the visit by an IAEA delegation to the North and the shutdown and sealing will take place about the same time,” South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon told reporters.

The two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan will meet next week, probably from Wednesday. US chief negotiator Christopher Hill is to travel to Japan and South Korea before then to coordinate positions.

Song said the talks would cover the second stage of the February pact -- the listing of all nuclear programmes, the disablement of nuclear facilities, the provision of the remaining fuel and normalisation of ties.

Late on Wednesday, Song spoke with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, who travelled to North Korea last week for a meeting with leader Kim Jong-Il, ahead of the expected resumption of the six-party talks, Yang’s ministry said.—AFP